"Well, to tell an old family secret, my Grandmother was Dutch..."
Posted on 02/25/2007 12:55:08 PM PST by nuconvert
Al Sharpton's Ancestors Were Slaves Owned by Strom Thurmond's Relatives
February 25, 2007
New York - Genealogists have found that civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Daily News said professional genealogists, working at the newspaper's behest, recently uncovered the ancestral ties between one of the nation's best-known black leaders and a man who was once a prominent defender of segregation.
"I have always wondered what was the background of my family," the newspaper quoted Sharpton as saying. "But nothing — nothing — could prepare me for this."
"It's chilling. It's amazing."
Sharpton's office said Sunday morning that he would not comment until a news conference planned for later in the day.
Some of Thurmond's relatives said the connection also came as a surprise to them. A niece, Ellen Senter, said she would speak with Sharpton if he were interested.
"I doubt you can find many native South Carolinians today whose family, if you traced them back far enough, didn't own slaves," said Senter, 61, of Columbia, S.C. She added: "And it is wonderful that [Sharpton] was able to become what he is in spite of what his forefather was."
One of the late senator's sons, Paul Thurmond, and a nephew, Barry Bishop, declined comment, the Daily News said.
According to the newspaper, the genealogists found documents establishing that Sharpton's great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton, was a slave owned by Julia Thurmond, whose grandfather was Strom Thurmond's great-great-grandfather. Coleman Sharpton was later freed.
The newspaper said the lead researcher was Megan Smolenyak, the chief family historian for Ancestry.com and an author of several published books on genealogy. Another researcher on the project was Tony Burroughs, who teaches genealogy at Chicago State University.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Another case against importing blacks from Africa.
"Well, to tell an old family secret, my Grandmother was Dutch..."
ROFLROFL!!!!
I give up
What A load.
duplicate with different title. sorry. plz pull
How very interesting
Reverend Al needs a better excuse than that.
I wonder why they don't give these 'professional genealogists' names? With all the things going on in the country and world you would think they Daily News would have better things to spend time and money on.
What a wonderful nugget of history unearthed! We are so much the better for this.
That's really a stretch. None of Thurmond's ancestors actually enslaved Sharpton's ancestors. To put it in perspective, Thurmond's grandfather had a SECOND COUSIN (Julia Thurmond) who owned Sharpton's great grandfather.
Most people don't think of their grandparents' second cousins as "family."
I don't even know most of my CURRENT second cousins.
How about the slaves that Al Gore's great grandfather used to own... Where did they go to? If you look up his autobio it starts with his grandfather who was born one year after the Civil War. Strange how all DemocRATs family bios start after the Civil War.
Not only should Al Gore and his DemocRAT friends such as Jimmy Carter, John Edwards and Bubbah Blythe (A.k.a. Clinton) find out who their great grandfathers slaves were, they should pay all their slave descendents the reparations that they surely deserve.
So Al owes his Christian faith to a republican.
Did you notice how they used the terms "ancestor" and "descendant" referring to Sharpton, to emphasize he's no slave, but when it came to Thurmond they were "relatives." I thought "relatives" implied current family, not deceased.
I wish they'd leave poor Strom's memory alone. I wonder who his peer Bobby "white n!&&er" Byrd's "relatives" enslaved.
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